survivor stories
Surviving a motor vehicle crash changes you. It’s not just the physical recovery, though that alone can be grueling. It’s the emotional weight, the mental toll, and the shift in perspective that stays with you long after the crash scene is cleared. For many, the trauma doesn’t end at impact. And for families who lose loved ones in fatal crashes, the road to healing is long, uncertain, and deeply personal. That’s why we believe that road safety and emotional support must go hand in hand.
By sharing vital information, offering resources, and fostering community engagement, we strive to raise awareness about the importance of safe driving, and supporting individuals impacted by road trauma.
“We understand that crash survivors have stories they want to share and we are pleased to provide a platform.”
If you enjoy reading these stories, be sure to check out our Crash Survivor Blog.
Are you interested in becoming part of our online recovery journey and want to share your story?
Transforming Pain into Lifelong Service
Resilience once meant pushing through everything on my own. However, my recovery taught me that real strength comes from knowing when to reach out for support. I began recognizing the signs in myself when my thoughts raced and doubt crept in. Rather than suppressing...
A Crash, a Song, and How I Rebuilt My Sense of Safety
When the crash happened, it didn’t just damage my car, it changed how I moved through the world. Before, driving was automatic. Afterward, it became a place where my body reacted before I had time to think. For months, something as simple as merging onto the freeway...
From Collision to Comeback: My Journey Through Brain Injury Recovery
In 2021, my life changed in a split second. A car accident left me with a concussion and a new reality I never saw coming. At the beginning, even the simplest tasks felt impossible. I was a single mom who could not figure out how to make my kids’ lunches. Their...
From a Student in Journalism to a Life Rewritten by Distracted Driving
It was a sunny yet brisk day in February of 2008. I was a student returning back to Auburn University after a brief time spent home with a friend of mine. I had just eaten lunch with my family, waved them good-bye and started back towards campus. At Auburn, I was a...
Musician Picks Up Pieces of Her Life After Tour Van Crash
How I Survived Surviving - One Musician’s Journey to Recovery I’m no stranger to plans completely derailing. Just two nights before the accident our converted van was practically swallowed by thick mud in Las Vegas, New Mexico, forcing us to stay awake until 3...
From Award-Winning Journalist to Victim of a Drunk Driver
Why You Shouldn’t Say These Phrases to Someone Who’s Grieving When I was hit head-on by a drunk driver in May 2021, the immediate recovery was undeniably the most difficult time of my life. The day before my crash, I was a healthy 22-year-old attending an...
Crash Survivor Finds Healing in Poetry
Poetry For Healing: Making Sense of a New World May 22nd, 2020 was not a typical day. I was starting work late due to a routine doctors appointment and a post-op pet rabbit. I would end it in a hospital bed, with strict instructions not to move in case I...
Crash Survivor Creates Sandal Blue Foundation
We’d finally made it. After 16 years of marriage, 5 kids in 6 years (including 2 sets of twins), health challenges galore, financial hardship… life. For the first time we finally felt like things were at that ‘point’ that we’d always wanted to get to. During COVID...
Finding Sacredness of Life After Surviving a Catastrophic Crash
The way I move through my days now is so incredibly different and yes there is the sacredness and how I love the sacredness of my life now post-accident. My innate ability to appreciate life’s little moments is the epitome of what I would call sacred. But it...
Crash Survivor Compares Dealing with Insurance to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
I survived a Zombie apocalypse. I used to be such a good little zombie. My car accident happened in 2014 right when my career as a nurse was going full tilt and my husband and I were launching our kids. All of a sudden, I found myself waking up in a seeming...
How Grief Led A Victim to Become The Unintended Activist
On February 22, 2016, a routine afternoon my beloved husband, father and high school math and science teacher, Tim O’Donnell as well as our 5-year-old daughter Bridget, lost their lives in a horrific car crash caused by a habitual drugged driver. My now...
Catastrophic Crash Survivor – Can I Ask You a Question?
Catastrophic Crash Survivor - Who Are You? I was wrong. Most of you do not know me personally. If you did, that first sentence would be jarring. Wrong is not something I admit often – or at least often enough. It was early in my catastrophic recovery; I was...
Woman Creates Caregiver Support Group to Help Herself and Others
On August 15, 2011, Greg and I, along with our friend Jimmy, were riding our Harley Davidsons along the scenic section of highway 95, about 60 miles south of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Greg was feeling sick, probably from food poisoning contracted at a diner the...
Moving on From Traumatic Brain Injury – A Catastrophic Journey
Brain Injury is a Catastrophic Journey And the Piper advanced and the children followed, And when all were in to the very last, The door in the mountainside shut fast. Did I say all? No! One was lame and could not dance the whole of the way; And in after years, if you...
A Decade of Healing From a Life Changing Crash
Last month, I celebrated my Crashiversary. It was a big one. 10 years ago I was driving alone when my life decided to come to an unexpected halt by no fault of my own. I was doing everything right that morning but sadly, the other driver was not. Rear ended at a...
Catastrophic Motorcycle Crash Survivor Will Always Be a Writer
Am I a Writer? Who am I? Lately, I’ve been thinking about resiliency. What it means. What it means to me. What makes one person resilient and another less-so. As I thought about this, and other things found down the rabbit hole, I stumbled across my...
Woman Creates Podcast After Near Fatal Crash
With this type of injury, you're looking at nine to twelve months of recovery.” I heard the words coming from the mouth of the attending surgeon at Roanoke Memorial Hospital but it didn't register completely. “Sure, Doc I'm ready, but can you save the...
Life-Changing Crash Leaves Man Full of Love
Who knew how little control we really have of our lives? I had so many plans for myself as a young 25 year old. I was working on my master’s degree in computer science and planning to work overseas in Asia. I loved to travel and learn about other...
Kevin Rempel Went From Paralysis to the Paralympics and Podium
We are so pleased to introduce you to Kevin Rempel who has an incredible story of overcoming a tremendous amount of adversity. In 2002 his father Gerry fell from a tree while deer hunting leaving him a complete paraplegic one year from retirement. Four years later...
Acceptance and Finding Purpose After a Traumatic Accident
When the doctors told me after my accident that it would take a long time to heal, I never imagined that 18 months later I would still be on my recovery journey. But those 18 months, however frustrating and tough, haven't been wasted time. They helped me...
Crash Survivor’s Wife Shares Three Things Crucial to Recovery
Thick, black smoke obscured a semi one inky night in July of 2012. A truck with mechanical problems crawled on the freeway. Neither my husband Derek nor his boss, the driver, saw the truck before drilling into the back of it. Nearly every bone in Derek’s face and eye...
Don’t Drive Distracted – i Pinky Swear Campaign Led by Crash Survivor
I Pinky Swear They say your life can change in the blink of an eye…. I never really understood the true meaning of this statement until I was hit by a distracted driver 6 years ago. Looking back at the person I was, the things I could do, the plans I had for my...
Waterfalls – Guest Blogger Shares Power of Music
Cinderella Man Back in the hospital, this time I am being visited by a doctor. He's a good-looking doctor. Too good-looking. Tv-doctor good looking, soap-opera-fake-doctor good looking. I listen as he shares news about my arms. In response I say, “14 seems like a...
You’re Getting Better Every Day
Sarah sustained a severe traumatic brain injury at the age of 15 after getting in a car with an underage drinking driver and is the author of the book, "You're Getting Better Every Day." Her writings have been published in Hope magazine and ADDitude Magazine....
